The national flag of the Republic of
Croatia, a horizontal tricolor of red, white and blue, charged with
the arms of the state, was officially adopted in 1990, shortly
before the proclamation of Croatian independence in 1991. The
colors of the flag are derived from ancient coats of arms
representing the various regions of Croatia. The tricolor flag,
without any coat of arms, first appeared in the revolutionary year
of 1848 and was subsequently outlawed by the Habsburg authorities.
Despite this it became a potent symbol of Croatian nationalism and
finally in 1867 the ban on its display was rescinded. Since then the
red-white-blue tricolor has been recognized, either officially or
unofficially, as Croatia’s national flag.

The Croatian arms—checky,
argent and gules—date from the sixteenth century and seem to derive
from sources going back to the eleventh century. These arms
represented Croatia in the achievement of the House of Habsburg
until 1918, were used by Croatia within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1918, by
the Independent State of Croatia during the Second World War and by
Croatia within socialist
Yugoslavia from 1946. The crest of the contemporary arms
is formed by five shields bearing historical coats of arms: from
left to right, the oldest known arms of Croatia, the arms of
the Republic of Ragusa, the arms of Dalmatia, the arms of Istria
and the arms of Slavonia.

Since 1991 Croatia has adopted a
range of naval ensigns and flags. The ensign is the national flag
with crossed anchors added behind the arms, while the naval jack
displays the arms and anchors on a blue field within a red-white frame. The
ensign and jack both have 2:3 proportions, and the latter is usually
half the size of the latter. The commission pennant is striped in
the national colors with the arms and anchors at the hoist. Flags for admirals
and commodores are square, somewhat resembling those used by
Yugoslavia in times past. The command pennants are also similar to
those used by Yugoslavia.